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It's claimed that some computers can now pass the Turing test: convincing people that they are human. Tim Harford asks how important that distinction is, and what it means for the future of human interaction.

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10 minutes

Last on

Mon 2 Sep 2019 03:50GMT

Sources

Robert Epstein "From Russia, with Love. How I got fooled (and somewhat humiliated) by a computer" Scientific American Mind 17

A. M. Turing "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"  Mind 1950

Brian Christian "The Samantha Test" The New Yorker 30 December 2013

Kenneth M Colby, James B Watt and John P Gilbert "A Computer Method for Psychotherapy: Preliminary Communication" Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 142 No 2 (1966)

Chris Baraniuk "How Talking Machines are Taking Call Centre Jobs" ±«Óãtv News 24 August 2018

Brian Christian The Most Human Human New York: Doubleday 2011

Adam Smth The Wealth of Nations 1776

David Autor "Why Are There So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation" Journal of Economic Perspectives - Volume 29, Number 3 - Summer 2015

Deters, F.G & Mehl, M. R. (2012) Does Posting Facebook Status Updates Increase or Decrease Loneliness? An Online Social Networking Experiment. Social psychological and personality science, 4(5), 10.1177/1948550612469233. 

Broadcasts

  • Sat 31 Aug 2019 04:50GMT
  • Sat 31 Aug 2019 13:50GMT
  • Sun 1 Sep 2019 14:50GMT
  • Sun 1 Sep 2019 21:50GMT
  • Sun 1 Sep 2019 22:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Sep 2019 03:50GMT

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